Why do hypnotherapists use age regression to revisit past memories?
There are many reasons hypnotherapists may use age regression with clients to access past memories.
Hypnotherapy is unique in that it provides a platform to recall information from the past without the hustle and bustle of conscious noise. It provides a safe space to explore resources we have that we've been unable to access for a while such as confidence and motivation, or build new resources based on our past learnings, to solve the issues we're experiencing today.
For example, let's say before a minor collision or very near miss on their bike with another vehicle, a client was a very confident cyclist. Since the incident, they have lost their confidence to get back on the bike. We can take them back to a time before the incident to recall and relive the confidence and enjoyment they had cycling and all the wonderful places they had been to and use techniques to bring those confident states back into the present.
We can help people find things they've lost e.g., important documents, wallets, keys, spectacles, and even lottery tickets by retracing our steps in the past and recalling things in great detail until the place and time comes to mind where they might be.
Sometimes we do things unconsciously, i.e., habitually without knowing about it, like making a cup of tea, or driving places and not really remembering much of the journey. We go into autopilot, especially if we're distracted by other things at the time.
As well as resourceful states hypnotherapists can help people find the cause of presenting issues to identify what started a problem appearing in the first place. For example, a nail biter may do it without thinking, or they may bite when they are stressed, bored, have difficult decisions to make or are nervous, etc. But how and where that nail-biting started they are not sure. It could have been when they were a child and they modelled parents or siblings when they were stressed for example.
We often don't know when or where problems started but by using hypnosis we can again retrace our developmental steps, back in time, and revisit aspects of our life where they appeared for self-stimulation or comfort and trace them back to some of the first incidents where we needed to use that behaviour and what was happening at the time. Once we have identified this there is all manner of interventions a hypnotherapist can use to help a client to extinguish that behaviour if it's no longer appropriate to use it in their current life.
We often get stuck in a rut with certain events that have happened in our lives because they had such a big impact on us at the time when we didn't have the resourcefulness to change things, especially when we've been through trauma and adversity and we can live our lives through a certain lens.
For example, we may react very defensively when given constructive feedback, especially by someone in authority, and this may be due to memories of being locked in at a young age with the idea we're not good enough (self-esteem) or having to work hard at everything we do (perfectionism).
By revisiting memories of our past selves with the adult resourceful and strengths we have now we can reframe and cognitively reconstruct a different version of events to congruently meet our current needs and give the younger self the important advice they needed to know to move on and away from the problem behaviour.
An example might be when a child was embarrassed in a class by the teacher for asking a 'silly' question. It was such an intense emotional and shameful experience for them in front of all their classmates, that they grew up shy and introverted, not asking for help or seeking clarity on things they really needed to know about.
Age regression is a very powerful intervention used in capable hands and can be so beneficial for treating most issues.
If you want to know more about age regression and how it could help your issues schedule a clal and have a friendly chat with Karen https://calendly.com/karenbartle/hypnosis-initial-chat
